New group delivers on General Pleasonton Day promises
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
It was a bold claim: The General Pleasonton Day parade would be one of the best in years.
Teresa Miller, a member of the newly formed nonprofit Celebrate Pleasanton, told the Pleasanton City Council at its Sept. 28 meeting that veteran parade organizer Rose Troth had been recruiting parade participants and she expected it to be a lengthy parade.
And last Saturday morning, Oct. 3, a runner presented announcer Don Epps with 50 entries to the parade that was about to start. It was long, it was loud. And apart from the firetrucks, show cars, tractors and motorcycles, most of which were headed to the car show at Dunlap Park after the parade, parade entrants went all out to decorate their rides.
Both the Pleasanton High School and Jayhawk-Linn High School bands participated. The judges gave the "best band" nod to the Blu-Jay musicians, who over the past three years has built the band up from a handful of musicians to the band members marching in Saturday's parade. Both bands played equally well, but the vote was recognition that the Pleasanton Marching Band was back.
The party carried over into the afternoon at the park with vendors selling a variety of items, informational kiosks and food trucks that had long lines. The food truck selling tacos appeared to be a crowd favorite, but it appeared that the most of the trucks had good business early in the afternoon.
The car show in front of the museum mushroomed to almost a block long and featured everything from custom rods to a reliable old truck that likely was used to pick up hay bales a month ago.
There were several games for the kids to try, but when the city workers announced the beginning of the tug-of-war west of the picnic shelter, the crowd gravitated there. And the apple pie eating contest wrapped up the afternoon in Dunlap Park with nearly a dozen contestants sinking their faces onto a fresh pie while keeping their hands behind their backs.
Dunlap Park activities
In Dunlap Park following the parade, there were several activies incluing a car show, clockwise from top left, where visitors could take a closer look at a 1935 Ford pickup owned by Roy Fischer; where contestant like Baileigh Lister and Jarrett May (in the foreground) competed in the apple pie eating contest; where country music singer Kent Page provides musical backdrop for the events; where there were several kids games; where food truck and vendor provided eating and shopping opportunities; and where cornhole contestants like Tucker Yocham (left) and Kreig Garrett could test their skills.
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